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What Is Your View On Rap/Hip-Hop?
- Thread starter Funk$tar
- Start date
If it wasn't for Hip Hop music, I probably would not be playing bass.
I loved punk rock rock and hip hop music in when I first picked up a bass in 1991. I loved the R&B, disco and soul samples from all the rap music I listened to and loved to play along with the records.
I was once listening to Boogie Down Productions in my room while doing my homework and my father came in the room and asked "What are you listening to?"
I said "This is BDP"
He said, "No it's Stanley Turrentine"
Then brought me downstairs and played me "Sister Sanctified" and I was floored.
I used to "borrow" his records all the time and so many of them contained the original material from most of the rap I listened to at the time.
Every Saturday morning he would drive me to my bass lesson and we would listen to WBGO (jazz radio in New York) there is a show that is still on today called the "Rhythm Revue" with Felix Hernandez that plays all the R&B and soul hits that all my favorite rappers sampled, and the bass lines just jumped out at me and I wanted to learn everyone of them.
I can't speak about rap of now since I find it horrible, with some exceptions from so pretty creative underground guys.
One of the bands I play with is a 10 piece Hip hop/jazz group that is trying to recapture the sound of the hip hop I grew up with while instead of sampling, we write and play our own backing tracks for the MC's and have a wonderful female vocalist everyone writes the music together there is no samples or computer instruments.
I loved punk rock rock and hip hop music in when I first picked up a bass in 1991. I loved the R&B, disco and soul samples from all the rap music I listened to and loved to play along with the records.
I was once listening to Boogie Down Productions in my room while doing my homework and my father came in the room and asked "What are you listening to?"
I said "This is BDP"
He said, "No it's Stanley Turrentine"
Then brought me downstairs and played me "Sister Sanctified" and I was floored.
I used to "borrow" his records all the time and so many of them contained the original material from most of the rap I listened to at the time.
Every Saturday morning he would drive me to my bass lesson and we would listen to WBGO (jazz radio in New York) there is a show that is still on today called the "Rhythm Revue" with Felix Hernandez that plays all the R&B and soul hits that all my favorite rappers sampled, and the bass lines just jumped out at me and I wanted to learn everyone of them.
I can't speak about rap of now since I find it horrible, with some exceptions from so pretty creative underground guys.
One of the bands I play with is a 10 piece Hip hop/jazz group that is trying to recapture the sound of the hip hop I grew up with while instead of sampling, we write and play our own backing tracks for the MC's and have a wonderful female vocalist everyone writes the music together there is no samples or computer instruments.
Just another old white guy that gets tired of young guys dising us.
Don't much care for the genre, but that doesn't make it bad.
You probably don't care for late 50s du-whop, either. It is a matter of generational context. We like the music we grow up with and carry it with us through life.
You need some years on you to really understand that. My grandfather didn't like anything but old bluegrass and country. My dad liked classical, jazz, and big band music.
So, it isn't that Hip Hop has broken any new musical ground. It is just a different style that evolved from the styles before it. You will be hearing your grandchildren laughing at how silly Hip Hop was and groaning every time you play it.
Don't much care for the genre, but that doesn't make it bad.
You probably don't care for late 50s du-whop, either. It is a matter of generational context. We like the music we grow up with and carry it with us through life.
You need some years on you to really understand that. My grandfather didn't like anything but old bluegrass and country. My dad liked classical, jazz, and big band music.
So, it isn't that Hip Hop has broken any new musical ground. It is just a different style that evolved from the styles before it. You will be hearing your grandchildren laughing at how silly Hip Hop was and groaning every time you play it.
- Apr 6, 2013
- 425
- 466
- 57
- Disclosures
- Agent for Scandinavian countries: Stick Enterprises Inc.
Another old white guy here 
I used to have no interest whatsoever in rap and hip hop, but a few years ago I started working. The musical director of a youth club in Oslo. Most kids there were interested in urban music and I just had to embrace it: I asked for CDs to listen to, borrowed a lot of stuff from the library and immersed in it...and, surprise! there's a lot of cool stuff there!
An old dog can and will learn new tricks, if it chooses to keep an open mind
I ended up recording a lot of stuff and composing beats (keeping samples to a minimum, a lot of real instruments and fake samples, that is original music treated to sound like a lift from an old LP). Now that I have a pretty good grasp of the genre, I can tell that I dig authenticity and genuine flow. Some themes I really don't care for, but as long as it is real I can at live with it. Hearing Norwegian kids spitting about shoot-outs is just plain silly and I would always make a point of telling posers to get real or get out. Give me your life, not the life of a kid in the USA.
Some of the guys I worked with were truly amazing, especially YoRhymes, who now goes by the name of Fabe.
An EP we recorded at the club is available for free download: lots of real bass in there, including fretless. There's even some Chapman Stick: if that's not a first I guess it's really close!!!
And, first and foremost, Fabe çan rap. He's got skills, he's got flow and (most important for me) his lyrics are amazing!
enjoy: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I used to have no interest whatsoever in rap and hip hop, but a few years ago I started working. The musical director of a youth club in Oslo. Most kids there were interested in urban music and I just had to embrace it: I asked for CDs to listen to, borrowed a lot of stuff from the library and immersed in it...and, surprise! there's a lot of cool stuff there!
An old dog can and will learn new tricks, if it chooses to keep an open mind
I ended up recording a lot of stuff and composing beats (keeping samples to a minimum, a lot of real instruments and fake samples, that is original music treated to sound like a lift from an old LP). Now that I have a pretty good grasp of the genre, I can tell that I dig authenticity and genuine flow. Some themes I really don't care for, but as long as it is real I can at live with it. Hearing Norwegian kids spitting about shoot-outs is just plain silly and I would always make a point of telling posers to get real or get out. Give me your life, not the life of a kid in the USA.
Some of the guys I worked with were truly amazing, especially YoRhymes, who now goes by the name of Fabe.
An EP we recorded at the club is available for free download: lots of real bass in there, including fretless. There's even some Chapman Stick: if that's not a first I guess it's really close!!!
And, first and foremost, Fabe çan rap. He's got skills, he's got flow and (most important for me) his lyrics are amazing!
enjoy: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Awesome, I can tell you dig more of the West Coast stuff, that's cool!
Either way at least you are familiar with it, it's always important to broaden our horizons, especially if your a musician!
It's more than just lifting a beat if you really gave the music a chance, but hey everyone has their own opinion which I completely respect!
But It's not only Hip-Hop music that samples, you have lots of experimental genres that do!
I'm also going to guess your not too much into Brian Eno either, because he sampled way before Hip Hop did, I actually would say he was one of many who invented sampling.
Haha of course it's music, I mean I'm not much a fan of Dubstep or Country but I'm not going to deny the fact that it's music. Anything with vocals/words and instruments/sounds is music...
I respect your opinion though, but hope one day you will see it as music.
And HEY! I Like Disco!!! haha
Love hip hop. But like most genres, there's the good and bad. Particularly, i like when hip hop is mixed well with others genres, like jazz and soul.
For those that have the dated idea that "rap isn't music" you really need to get out more. Check out hip hop collabs with Robert Glasper and Roy Hargrove, then tell me that isn't music. Listen to The Roots...is that not music? Full band at the top of their game, with a killer MC helping front. Rapping is simply a vocal style, and can be melded with almost any genre of music. Very diverse these days.
For those that have the dated idea that "rap isn't music" you really need to get out more. Check out hip hop collabs with Robert Glasper and Roy Hargrove, then tell me that isn't music. Listen to The Roots...is that not music? Full band at the top of their game, with a killer MC helping front. Rapping is simply a vocal style, and can be melded with almost any genre of music. Very diverse these days.
When I was listening it was Run DMC, NWA, BDP, Beastie boys, Public enemy now everyone is trying to be them
Growing up in the 80s I got sucked into the breakdancing trend (which was a good thing - until I sprained my neck doing a back spin!) and that was my introduction to hip-hop. A lot of the music b-boys were dancing to in '84 was electro-funk so I was listening to a lot of that at the age of 9. I also had the soundtracks to Beat Street and Breakin', as well as the soundtrack to Wildstyle (which everyone interested in hip-hop should hear as an example of live rhyming typical of the era). I thought that the hip-hop of the 70s and 80s was inventive and a lot of fun. Guys like Double Dee & Steinski were taking Tom Moulton's disco splicing approach to the next level with their collages of funk breaks (later built upon by people like Coldcut and Cut Chemist) and the scene had a lot of personality. A lot of my introduction to funk was via hip-hop so that was also a lot of fun. Things changed in the 90s with the major labels becoming aware of rap's selling power amongst gangsta-image-loving white suburban kids and that killed a lot of the vibe for me. It seemed like all of the best stuff went more underground at that point.
Anyway, rap is currently like most pop music: what the average person is exposed to is not likely to be very good - or representative of the potential of the style. But there are some really talented folks out there. This summer I caught Lyrics Born and Lateef (Latyrx) and they put on one heck of a show (both of those guys write way better than average lyrics and they know how to rock a crowd). I have Ohmega Watts' "The Find" album in the car CD player right now and that's got some really good stuff on it.
Anyway, rap is currently like most pop music: what the average person is exposed to is not likely to be very good - or representative of the potential of the style. But there are some really talented folks out there. This summer I caught Lyrics Born and Lateef (Latyrx) and they put on one heck of a show (both of those guys write way better than average lyrics and they know how to rock a crowd). I have Ohmega Watts' "The Find" album in the car CD player right now and that's got some really good stuff on it.
I like old skool hip-hip. The 'golden age' for me is early to mid 90's, when there was lots of great lyricists and clever sampling of old funk and soul music (rather than just ripping off whole songs) which got me discovering & loving the original records even more.
A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory for me is possibly the greatest hip hop album ever, and is also a great bass album in its own right (featuring Ron Carter on upright). I also love De La Soul, The Pharcyde, Main Source, Pete Rock, Black Sheep, Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Gangstarr. I liked Nas' 1st album (Illmatic), & I also like a bit of early Dr. Dre, Snoop, Digital Underground, which really got me into the whole Parliament-Funkadelic thing.
Maybe it's an age thing, and maybe I'm generalising, but a lot of new Hip Hop I've heard is less 'musical' and just too clichéd lyrically for me.
A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory for me is possibly the greatest hip hop album ever, and is also a great bass album in its own right (featuring Ron Carter on upright). I also love De La Soul, The Pharcyde, Main Source, Pete Rock, Black Sheep, Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Gangstarr. I liked Nas' 1st album (Illmatic), & I also like a bit of early Dr. Dre, Snoop, Digital Underground, which really got me into the whole Parliament-Funkadelic thing.
Maybe it's an age thing, and maybe I'm generalising, but a lot of new Hip Hop I've heard is less 'musical' and just too clichéd lyrically for me.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Gil Scott Heron is one of my all-time favorites. It's amazing how he can be so cool, calm, relaxed and ferociously angry all at the same time. Plus, his backing band and arrangements are fantastic.
Love Gil Scott Heron also. His final album was great. Also like other precursors of rap like Isaac Hayes and George Clinton.
Very true - and you're now looking at a generation of musicians who have hip-hop ingrained in them. It's also interesting to see how hip-hop has been assimilated by other cultures and, in some cases, how aspects of it are similar to already-existing musics of the region (west African griot music, certain Brazilian music and, of course, Jamaican toasting come to mind).
Hopkins
Commercial User
Not a huge fan personally, but I respect the genera none the less. Like everything else, there are very talented visionaries, and there are talentless junk artists that are a stain on the art form. Also, like every other genera, it has become formulaic, and talent has taken a back seat to shock value and what can sell.
